Morgette in the Yukon

When the author of this book came to Alaska first, fifty-seven years ago, only some fifty-one years before that the Gold Rush days were in their infancy. His father had joined the rush to Nome as a boy, only forty-six years before. The point of this is that today we can still find a lot of Alaskan pioneers around from forty or fifty years ago and talk to them, and get the flavor of things the way they were right after WWII in Alaska - not much different from the Gold Rush Days as a matter of fact. Thus when Glenn Boyer was first in Alaska he found lots of old timers around from whom to get the flavor and feel of things and he obviously did it and can put it across to readers. You can smell, feel and visualize "how it was." But he himself obviously experienced a time much different than today's Alaska and a lot more like the historical period he covers so realistically here. How many of you remember Cap Lathrop or Archie Ferguson from first hand contact?This is the second book in a series about Dolf Morgette, a legendary lawman in the tradition of Wyatt Earp. He comes to Alaska on a manhunt for a killer who shot his good friend, Harvey Parrent, having mistaken Harvey for Dolf himself. He is only partially successful and the manhunt continues in the next volume MORGETTE ON THE BARBARY COAST.Oddly, reviewers (some of them women) haven't picked up on the fact that Boyer's Morgette series is full of strong women doing things as well or better than men. Morever, many of them, such as Dolf's wife, Margaret are minorities. Although Boyer never makes clear her exact tribe, she is obviously a Nez Perce, indicated by the exploits of her father, Chief Henry, a Chief Joseph look alike. Dolf and Margaret adopt the native daughter of their Indian nurse, who has died of tuberculosis, as so many of them did.Margaret bears their son, Henry, in Alaska and almost dies in childbirth, saved by the timely visit of Dolf's old friend, Doc Hennessey, who performs a Cesarean delivery. Following a winter in the vicinity of Dyea, they push inland and travel down the Yukon in boats they build themselves, just as the other spampeders did, only they are ahead of the Dawson Rush and go in to the Sky Pilot Diggin's, an obvious parallel to Preacher Creek, and the town that they found parallels Circle City.They are dogged by the usual bunch of bad guys who are attempting to reach the diggin's ahead of them, apprised of the secret that Jack Quillen, a sourdough is the only one who knows the exact location. Behind the bad guys is one faction of early developers, and behind Dolf and Quillen are another, like the AC Co. and N.A.T.T. who were to pioneer Alaska. John Hedley, local strong man of Dolf's faction is derived from pioneer John Healy (for whom Healy, Alaska is named) and a rare old scoundrel. For those of you who like historical tie-ins, read about Healy's Montana and Canada career in such books as Whoop-up Country.The story starts with efforts to get rid of Dolf, starting on t

When the author of this book came to Alaska first, fifty-seven years ago, only some fifty-one years before that the Gold Rush days were in their infancy. His father had joined the rush to Nome as a boy, only forty-six years before. The point of this is that today we can still find a lot of Alaskan pioneers around from forty or fifty years ago and talk to them, and get the flavor of things the way they were right after WWII in Alaska - not much different from the Gold Rush Days as a matter of fact. Thus when Glenn Boyer was first in Alaska he found lots of old timers around from whom to get the flavor and feel of things and he obviously did it and can put it across to readers. You can smell, feel and visualize "how it was." But he himself obviously experienced a time much different than today's Alaska and a lot more like the historical period he covers so realistically here. How many of you remember Cap Lathrop or Archie Ferguson from first hand contact?This is the second book in a series about Dolf Morgette, a legendary lawman in the tradition of Wyatt Earp. He comes to Alaska on a manhunt for a killer who shot his good friend, Harvey Parrent, having mistaken Harvey for Dolf himself. He is only partially successful and the manhunt continues in the next volume MORGETTE ON THE BARBARY COAST.Oddly, reviewers (some of them women) haven't picked up on the fact that Boyer's Morgette series is full of strong women doing things as well or better than men. Morever, many of them, such as Dolf's wife, Margaret are minorities. Although Boyer never makes clear her exact tribe, she is obviously a Nez Perce, indicated by the exploits of her father, Chief Henry, a Chief Joseph look alike. Dolf and Margaret adopt the native daughter of their Indian nurse, who has died of tuberculosis, as so many of them did.Margaret bears their son, Henry, in Alaska and almost dies in childbirth, saved by the timely visit of Dolf's old friend, Doc Hennessey, who performs a Cesarean delivery. Following a winter in the vicinity of Dyea, they push inland and travel down the Yukon in boats they build themselves, just as the other spampeders did, only they are ahead of the Dawson Rush and go in to the Sky Pilot Diggin's, an obvious parallel to Preacher Creek, and the town that they found parallels Circle City.They are dogged by the usual bunch of bad guys who are attempting to reach the diggin's ahead of them, apprised of the secret that Jack Quillen, a sourdough is the only one who knows the exact location. Behind the bad guys is one faction of early developers, and behind Dolf and Quillen are another, like the AC Co. and N.A.T.T. who were to pioneer Alaska. John Hedley, local strong man of Dolf's faction is derived from pioneer John Healy (for whom Healy, Alaska is named) and a rare old scoundrel. For those of you who like historical tie-ins, read about Healy's Montana and Canada career in such books as Whoop-up Country.The story starts with efforts to get rid of Dolf, starting on t